[0:00] five years ago Game of Thrones ended
[0:02] Game of Thrones ended 5 years ago that
[0:05] all of that was half a decade ago we as
[0:08] a society have not recovered and I don't
[0:10] just mean that we haven't recovered from
[0:11] the ending being bad although I
[0:13] personally will never recover what I
[0:15] mean is that we are still culturally in
[0:18] the shadow of the show or at least
[0:20] that's what every major streaming
[0:21] service and TV channel has been betting
[0:23] on as the show approached its conclusion
[0:25] a bevy of Articles materialized asking
[0:27] what will the next Game of Thrones be
[0:29] well shows that are trying to be the
[0:31] next Game of Thrones the next Game of
[0:33] Thrones a post ComiCon appraisal of
[0:35] potential heirs to the throne what's the
[0:37] next Game of Thrones all the contenders
[0:39] for Fantasy TV's Crown these 16 shows
[0:42] desperately want to be the next Game of
[0:44] Thrones everyone wants to be the next
[0:46] Game of Thrones what exactly it means to
[0:48] be the next Game of Thrones was a bit of
[0:49] a fill-in-the blank did it mean to be
[0:51] the next show that got a big audience or
[0:53] one that fans obsessed over and analyzed
[0:56] or did it just mean a successful fantasy
[0:58] series or a show about political intrig
[1:00] for the executives at media companies it
[1:03] seems to have meant adapt any fantasy or
[1:05] sci-fi property we have the rights to as
[1:07] quickly as possible but make it as much
[1:09] like Game of Thrones as we can get away
[1:11] with HBO made Game of Thrones in a cave
[1:13] and we are going to replicate it if it
[1:15] bankrupts us now 5 years later our media
[1:18] landscape is absolutely drowning in
[1:21] Thrones clones
[1:22] [Applause]
[1:36] hey
[1:38] fire I wanted to talk about um how
[1:42] desperately we all of us need to keep
[1:45] reading um you can't think at all
[1:49] clearly or well without memory and it
[1:52] matters a great deal what you remember
[1:55] when thinking about artistic influence
[1:57] it is impossible not to be influenced by
[2:00] literary critic and legendary Krogan
[2:02] Harold Bloom who wrote the anxiety of
[2:04] influence the book is focused singularly
[2:06] on poetry but I'm going to use it to
[2:08] talk about art more broadly in the book
[2:10] Bloom proposes that there is really no
[2:12] such thing as an original poem and that
[2:13] all poetry is in one way or another a
[2:16] reaction to other poems artists
[2:19] experience this as anxiety as they're in
[2:21] a paradoxical situation you can't
[2:23] improve as a poet without reading the
[2:25] Poetry of those who came before you but
[2:27] the moment you allow the voices of the
[2:29] Masters into your mind they can warp
[2:31] what is essential about you and you find
[2:33] yourself filtering your thoughts through
[2:36] the imagined thoughts of these other
[2:38] poets how do you write a play that
[2:40] doesn't sound like Shakespeare in the
[2:41] 17th century or how do you write a video
[2:43] essay that doesn't sound like every
[2:44] frame of painting in 2015 really how how
[2:47] do you tell me how for Bloom the answer
[2:50] is that it is ultimately impossible but
[2:52] the struggle to overcome this anxiety
[2:54] can be fruitful and is the primary way
[2:56] that strong poets Define themselves as
[2:59] strong while weaker poets languish in
[3:01] creating art that is merely derivative
[3:03] the strong poet can synthesize what came
[3:05] before and transcend it Bloom describes
[3:07] the relationship between the modern
[3:09] artist the influenced and his precursor
[3:12] the
[3:12] influencer in both biblical and Freudian
[3:15] terms in his biblical metaphor when
[3:17] reading the work of the precursor an
[3:19] artist glimpses heaven so to speak and
[3:21] is also at that moment cast out from it
[3:24] like Satan and thrown into hell but it
[3:26] is there that Satan now independent of
[3:28] God can at least attempt to make a
[3:30] heaven Out of Hell make art that has the
[3:33] spark of the Divine but really he's much
[3:35] more obsessed with the Freudian stuff so
[3:36] we're going to focus on that a little
[3:38] more in Freudian terms the precursor
[3:40] artist is the father with which the
[3:42] modern artist has an edible relationship
[3:44] with owing his existence to the father
[3:46] and yet being jealous of the father's
[3:47] position of authority and power so in
[3:49] art one must kill one's
[3:56] father Bloom's answer for how a writer
[3:58] achieves this is by being a bad reader
[4:02] I'm being a little phous but the idea is
[4:04] that the artist must somehow
[4:06] misinterpret the work of the predecessor
[4:07] because if it was possible to perfectly
[4:09] understand the predecessor's work then
[4:11] you would get trapped in the swamp of
[4:13] merely reproducing that work but in
[4:15] misunderstanding misreading or in
[4:18] Bloom's jargon Mis prison can kind of
[4:20] think of it as mislabeling you arrive at
[4:22] something that is an original
[4:24] perspective on the precursor the artist
[4:26] can then use that misunderstanding as
[4:28] the Genesis for the their own work and I
[4:30] think that this is an important thing to
[4:32] talk about because I think there's a lot
[4:33] of people out there and multinational
[4:35] corporations that want to make something
[4:37] new but they don't know how to look
[4:40] beyond their influences and they're
[4:43] struggling with that and that's
[4:45] something that I feel as well so I think
[4:47] that you know we're talking about
[4:49] Thrones clones in this episode but we're
[4:51] you know also trying to work through
[4:52] this let's let's work through it
[4:54] together Bloom proposes that there are
[4:56] at least six ways that artists can do
[4:58] this or have done this that can lead to
[5:00] great art so yeah if Harold bloom had
[5:02] been writing during the BuzzFeed era the
[5:04] book would have been called six reasons
[5:06] you're a
[5:10] hack you can feel the Game of Thrones
[5:12] influence in some of these shows before
[5:13] they even begin it's right here in the
[5:16] opening themes Wheel of Time the rings
[5:18] of power foundation and even Shogun All
[5:20] Copy the basic idea of Game of Thrones
[5:22] intro with close-ups on CGI images that
[5:24] are some kind of toy or piece of art
[5:26] that is slowly building itself
[5:28] throughout the course of the intro only
[5:30] to pull back at the end to reveal the
[5:32] full image but while these shows ape the
[5:34] Aesthetics of Thrones they don't copy
[5:36] its utility an underrated aspect for why
[5:38] Game of Thrones achieved widespread
[5:40] success despite being an extremely
[5:42] complicated story is because of this
[5:44] opening which oriented viewers in a
[5:45] world and gave them a sense of where
[5:47] everything was in relation to one
[5:48] another many of these fantasy
[5:50] adaptations are in desperate need of
[5:52] some way to show a freaking map to the
[5:54] viewer rather than making me Google it
[5:56] in season 2 of The Wheel of Time parin
[5:58] travels across a desert with three women
[6:00] who are from a desert but not this
[6:03] desert they're from this desert a piece
[6:04] of World building the show does not want
[6:06] to draw attention to in which casual
[6:08] viewers will never Gro you know unless
[6:10] they click on the explore tab in the
[6:11] browser and go through the reams of Wiki
[6:13] articles Amazon is so eager to show you
[6:15] that the website defaults to this tab
[6:17] rather than taking you directly to the
[6:19] episodes like every other streaming
[6:20] service how dare you Bezos just show me
[6:23] the episodes and put a map in the show
[6:25] it's okay HBO does not own the concept
[6:27] of maps if you're going to copy
[6:29] everything else just show me where the
[6:30] AIL waste is nobody knows where anything
[6:34] is the first type of misreading is what
[6:36] Harold Bloom
[6:38] calls look I'm going to try and avoid
[6:40] Bloom's fancy Latin names for all this
[6:42] stuff let's just call it the swerve to
[6:44] Swerve is to accept the greatness of a
[6:47] precursor poet only up to a point to
[6:50] recreate or recapture some sence of what
[6:53] exists in a great work of art but to
[6:55] then suggest that it goes wrong
[6:56] somewhere and to remedy this fault with
[6:58] your own work this is is like a central
[7:00] idea for him like all of the six
[7:02] readings kind of involve this one any
[7:04] reading of any text is a swerve of some
[7:06] kind it is baked into the process of
[7:08] interpretation extrapolating on that
[7:10] misreading is to Swerve into some new
[7:13] Direction you read X poem it gives you y
[7:15] idea so you write Zed poem and if you
[7:18] carry the one and multiply by pi you
[7:20] won't be a disappointment to your family
[7:22] Bloom tracks these kinds of revisions
[7:24] through the history of romantic poetry
[7:26] but given this episode is on fantasy
[7:28] epics an example jumps to mind The Wheel
[7:30] of Time often accused of replicating The
[7:32] Lord of the Rings but anyone familiar
[7:34] with the work will know that this is
[7:35] only true up until a point that Robert
[7:37] Jordan deliberately evoked the early
[7:39] parts of the Fellowship of the Ring
[7:41] before sending his Heroes on a very
[7:42] different Adventure the two rivers is
[7:45] like the shy a pastoral Paradise
[7:47] isolated from the concerns of Kingdoms
[7:49] and cities a dark lord has forces called
[7:51] trxs a combination of two regular foes
[7:53] in Middle Earth trolls and Orcs And A
[7:56] number of beings called Fades which
[7:57] resemble the nasgul the heroes receed
[7:59] with the help of a wise magic user and
[8:01] each escaped many dangers including a
[8:03] daring River Crossing humans aligned
[8:05] with the dark lord in a gritty town and
[8:07] a battle with dark Forces in the ruins
[8:09] of a Fallen Kingdom these early
[8:11] references to tolken helped many readers
[8:13] get on board with Jordan's story but
[8:15] Jordan then swerves away from that
[8:17] outline into a story with very different
[8:20] contradictory
[8:21] themes when your king receives those
[8:25] plans he will redirect his forces to
[8:27] your borders
[8:30] and rally the support of the other
[8:32] nations the water tribes and the air
[8:35] Nomads and the entire world will turn
[8:38] their attention to the Earth Benders so
[8:41] for us it was about striking that right
[8:43] balance of making sure you were true to
[8:45] the DNA of the original but at the same
[8:47] time we had to make it a serialized
[8:48] Netflix drama which meant it couldn't
[8:50] just be for kids it had to also appeal
[8:52] to the people who were big fans of Game
[8:53] of Thrones and so it had to feel
[8:55] grounded and mature and adult in that
[8:57] way too that's a quote from Albert Kim
[8:59] the show showrunner of the new Netflix
[9:00] adaptation of avatar The Last Airbender
[9:03] and what struck me immediately about it
[9:04] was how imperative it sounded it had to
[9:07] appeal not we tried to appeal or we
[9:09] wanted to appeal but had like this was
[9:12] an algorithmic dictat make this show
[9:14] like Game of Thrones or it doesn't get
[9:16] made whether or not that was the case
[9:18] behind the scenes I have no idea but the
[9:20] influence is clear on the screen right
[9:22] from the beginning of the show which
[9:23] starts not with an introduction to our
[9:25] main characters like the original
[9:26] Nickelodeon cartoon did but with an
[9:28] introduction to the politics of the
[9:30] story we learn that the fire nation's
[9:32] attack on the Aromas was actually
[9:33] achieved by cleverly tricking the world
[9:35] into thinking they were going to attack
[9:37] the Earth Nation instead how little
[9:39] finger of You by the time the two lead
[9:41] characters qara and Ang are actually
[9:43] able to talk to one another we've had 25
[9:45] minutes of Throne Room scenes small
[9:48] Council scenes and a public assembly
[9:50] political Intrigue was pushed to the
[9:51] Forefront of the story before any other
[9:53] element this comes at the expense of the
[9:55] more childlike humor and Whimsy of the
[9:57] original show the running time for the
[9:58] season is about as long as the season
[10:00] which it is adapting but there are
[10:02] dozens of plot lines which it does not
[10:04] adapt but rather than simply eliminate
[10:06] what it considers tonally unnecessary
[10:08] for the new vision of the show it adds a
[10:10] whole bunch of political Intrigue plot
[10:12] lines there's a whole subplot in the
[10:13] Fire Nation involving the fire lord and
[10:15] aula and reveal in the final episode
[10:17] that season bad guy Xiao has secretly
[10:20] been working directly for aula to thwart
[10:22] Zuko on top of that there's also a
[10:24] tendency in the plotting to have the
[10:26] kids seek the adults for help which
[10:29] which is something children's literature
[10:31] is well advised to avoid like when they
[10:33] first find Ang they go to their Grandma
[10:35] for help and when they arrive on Kyoshi
[10:37] Island they go to the leader of the
[10:38] village for help typically the child
[10:40] protagonists of an adventure story
[10:42] including the ones in the original show
[10:44] are trying to get out from under the
[10:46] control of corrupt or incompetent adult
[10:48] characters that they get to exercise
[10:50] their own agency is the whole purpose of
[10:52] the adventure in those stories there is
[10:54] a substantive difference between being a
[10:56] kid and being an adult there is not in
[10:58] the 24 show and could be 10 or 20 or 50
[11:02] doesn't really matter he's made to act
[11:03] as just another part of the political
[11:05] landscape of this world rather than a
[11:07] disruptive Force that's going its own
[11:09] way Amazon's billion- dooll tax write
[11:11] off the rings of power is similarly
[11:12] crude in its attempt to inject the
[11:14] spirit of George RR Martin into the
[11:16] corpse of JRR tolken they have a bit
[11:18] more leeway to do whatever they want
[11:19] than some of these other shows as unlike
[11:21] them the rings of power was not directly
[11:23] adapting a story that was fully fleshed
[11:25] out in another medium but is instead
[11:27] stringing together and padding out
[11:29] anciliary material that they had the
[11:31] rights to kind of while edging right up
[11:33] to the line of the stuff that they
[11:35] didn't have the rights to It's
[11:36] Complicated political Intrigue is
[11:38] something that while present in The Lord
[11:40] of the Rings wasn't exactly at the
[11:42] Forefront yes the characters visit the
[11:44] kings and queens of various Realms but
[11:46] the axis of the conflict is much simpler
[11:48] than in Game of Thrones there is good
[11:51] and evil as real tangible forces in that
[11:54] world and so when you visit a kingdom
[11:56] that is in danger it's in danger because
[11:58] the king is being corrupted by some evil
[12:00] magic and not because of a
[12:01] three-dimensional chess game between his
[12:03] advisers so while it isn't completely
[12:05] alien to have a political Intrigue
[12:07] plotline in a Middle Earth Story the
[12:09] kind of intrigue was very specific and
[12:11] not particularly compatible with the
[12:13] sensibilities of Game of Thrones yet
[12:15] over the course of the Show's first
[12:16] season there are an overabundance of
[12:19] scenes of The Elven King scheming to
[12:21] have gadriel sent away to valanor
[12:23] because her endless search for Sauron
[12:24] has fallen out of favor with the court
[12:26] or the jocking for power of those in the
[12:28] court of numor or the fatherson
[12:30] relationship in the royal family of the
[12:32] dwarves over how their people should
[12:33] treat the elves and on and on and on and
[12:36] what is deemphasized is often just as
[12:37] revealing as what is emphasized despite
[12:39] the rings of power being in the title of
[12:41] the show their creation is entirely
[12:43] secondary to the origin story of a
[12:45] volcano erupting and yet that story
[12:47] where Sauron infiltrates The Elves and
[12:49] slowly corrupts them and forges the ring
[12:51] takes up a mere 20 minutes in the final
[12:53] episode but it's the exact kind of Tolen
[12:57] in political intrigue that is completely
[13:00] natural in this universe plot lines
[13:02] focused on political Intrigue are a
[13:03] little more at home in a series like
[13:05] Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time which
[13:07] is also being adapted by Amazon but
[13:09] coming out in the shadow of Game of
[13:11] Thrones has influenced just how much
[13:13] attention that part of the story has
[13:15] received the wheel of time if you don't
[13:17] know is the story of three peasant boys
[13:19] who are whisked away from their simple
[13:20] rural town and into a grand Continental
[13:22] Adventure that forces them to become
[13:24] Heroes of Destiny fighting against an
[13:26] all powerful Dark Lord that description
[13:28] might give you the the impression that
[13:29] this is a pretty generic fantasy series
[13:32] and you would be right The Wheel of Time
[13:35] embodies all of the classic tropes of
[13:37] the genre it defines them what that
[13:40] basic premise might also inform you of
[13:42] is that there is a limit to how
[13:43] interesting or complicated the political
[13:45] Intrigue can get in a story like this
[13:47] The Wheel of Time is a story where the
[13:49] opposite team are the dark friends who
[13:50] support the dark lord it's binary the
[13:52] real conflict lays in figuring out who
[13:54] is secretly supporting the dark lord one
[13:56] of the primary locations for The Wheel
[13:58] of Time is is the White Tower where all
[14:00] of these sorceresses live and constantly
[14:02] Feud and bicker with one another and
[14:04] it's a place that the show treats as if
[14:05] it is their King's Landing this is where
[14:07] the political jockeying happens where
[14:09] many characters are investigating a
[14:11] number of different Mysteries and where
[14:13] you might walk in on someone having a
[14:15] threesome what you don't get that much
[14:16] of though is people learning how to do
[14:18] magic You know despite the fact that
[14:19] this is also you know a magic school
[14:22] pretend that the show came out in 2011
[14:24] and it would have treated this location
[14:25] as if it was their Hogwarts shown us as
[14:27] many fun classes of magic as as possible
[14:29] focused on the students bonding with one
[14:31] another and it would have done
[14:32] everything in its power to deemphasize
[14:34] the politics a while back I released a
[14:36] big long video about the first season of
[14:38] foundation Apple's attempt that of
[14:39] Thrones clone the show adapts Isaac
[14:41] azoff's science fiction novels and one
[14:43] of the reasons this video exist is that
[14:45] I wanted to make another video on the
[14:47] second season which I found to be an
[14:48] overall Improvement on the first but I
[14:50] found myself Limited in just talking
[14:52] about it in isolation it didn't fall out
[14:54] of a coconut tree I have however shared
[14:56] my full thoughts on that over on my
[14:58] patreon so if you want to support the
[15:00] show and get some extra content you can
[15:02] go to patreon.com justr Just Sayan the
[15:05] foundation novel series is myopically
[15:07] focused on the political relationship
[15:09] between the fledgling Foundation at the
[15:11] edge of the Galaxy and the crumbling but
[15:13] still powerful Galactic Empire so scenes
[15:16] like game of thrones-esque intrigue are
[15:17] built into the premise and not out of
[15:19] the ordinary here what is uncanny though
[15:21] is how precisely the feel of Game of
[15:23] Thrones is recreated here I am Ru en
[15:27] Joiner to the queen allow me to present
[15:30] the doen of the trade leagues Prime
[15:33] witness of the CLA Cathedral and most
[15:36] excellent Queen sarth I first sole
[15:40] descendant of dominion the problem that
[15:41] show faces to a degree is that it is
[15:44] virtually impossible for a television
[15:46] show to replicate the scale of the World
[15:48] building that Game of Thrones had which
[15:50] benefited from 20 years of George R
[15:52] Martin flushing out every nook and
[15:53] cranny of Westeros with literally
[15:55] hundreds of Royal houses and characters
[15:57] Foundation had relatively light World
[16:00] building setting up planets and peoples
[16:02] for the purposes of one story and then
[16:04] we never really hear about them again
[16:06] the TV series does an admiral job of
[16:08] creating new factions within the empire
[16:10] for the Emperors to bounce off of but
[16:12] all of this serves to create the
[16:13] atmosphere of a Game of Thrones without
[16:15] the depth of that
[16:16] conflict Bloom's second form of revision
[16:19] is a kind of denial the modern poet
[16:22] denies the quality of the precursor poem
[16:24] suggesting that there is some great flaw
[16:26] buried within the work and that it is
[16:27] misfired in some way let me correct your
[16:29] aim the new poet says this Bloom calls
[16:32] completion and antithesis a poet
[16:34] antithetically completes his precursor
[16:36] by So reading the parent poem as to
[16:38] retain its terms but to mean them in
[16:40] another sense as though the precursor
[16:42] had failed to go far enough in his
[16:44] pursuit of understanding the logic of
[16:45] Dreams Sigman Frey proposed a theory
[16:47] about language drawing on the study of
[16:50] Egyptian by philologist Carl Abel who
[16:52] wrote that in the Egyptian language
[16:54] there are a fair number of words with
[16:56] two meanings one of which is the exact
[16:58] opposite of the other Freud seized on
[17:01] this idea to develop the concept that
[17:03] perhaps there were Primal words words
[17:05] containing opposing meanings in other
[17:07] languages and that these older words are
[17:09] the more correct way to interpret dreams
[17:11] was Freud right about the existence of
[17:14] these Primal words no probably not but
[17:17] as is so often the case with him he's
[17:19] wrong in an interesting way and then
[17:20] literary critics take his ideas and make
[17:22] them part of their thinking so then you
[17:24] have to go through the whole thing again
[17:26] Bloom found worth in the concept by
[17:27] saying a poet could metaphorically seek
[17:29] out the Primal word at the root of the
[17:31] precursor poem because then you could
[17:33] discover its antithesis and produce the
[17:36] negative form of that poem SL Primal
[17:38] word that way you can make something
[17:40] just as great even if it's saying the
[17:42] opposite thing this often means
[17:43] exploring what is taboo I think Tess
[17:46] antithesis is a way to understand the
[17:48] emergence and appeal of grim Dark
[17:50] Fantasy Grim dark is a subgenre of
[17:52] fantasy in works like Game of Thrones
[17:54] which Adam Roberts called an anti-
[17:56] tolken genre in contrast to the more
[17:58] ideal real istic and romanticized
[18:00] worldview of The Lord of the Rings Grim
[18:02] Dark Fantasy is more cynical and
[18:03] nihilistic it is also much much more
[18:07] violent and the violence has a
[18:08] transgressive element to it taking
[18:10] something the audience recognizes and
[18:12] injecting it with some
[18:16] more perhaps the area where the
[18:18] influence of Game of Thrones has
[18:19] affected the rest of these fantasy
[18:20] habitations the most and often to their
[18:22] detriment is in their tone their
[18:25] adoption of the Grim dark worldview
[18:27] though author Robert Jordan did
[18:28] originally consider writing The Wheel of
[18:30] Time as a more brutal and violent Story
[18:32] the direction he ultimately took his
[18:34] book series was in a decidedly more PG13
[18:37] way there is violence in his stories but
[18:39] it is often delivered in a more poetic
[18:41] or ambiguous way rather than focusing on
[18:43] the blood and gore of it all Rand the
[18:45] protagonist learns different fighting
[18:47] Maneuvers and he will often just list
[18:49] them during a fight scene and it's up to
[18:50] the reader to interpret how they want
[18:52] the cat on hot sand or the king fisher
[18:54] takes a silver back to look the TV show
[18:57] on the other hand
[18:59] [Applause]
[19:05] our brutal bloody fights in the show all
[19:07] captured in gruesome detail right from
[19:09] the pilot episode comic relief character
[19:11] Tom Marilyn who is supposed to be a
[19:13] jolly Bard is omitted from the early
[19:15] episodes of the show which makes all of
[19:17] the events of the first few episodes
[19:18] that much darker and when the characters
[19:20] do sing a song to one another it is
[19:21] Solemn and sad rather than an island of
[19:24] joy and hope that Tom usually brought to
[19:25] the story The Character does appear
[19:27] later in the story in a a truncated way
[19:29] but even still is made darker and edgier
[19:32] and more aggressive than his book
[19:33] counterpart his boots have Spurs he's a
[19:36] cool Clint Eastwood cowboy guy Tom's
[19:39] absence might not have been so keenly
[19:40] felt to the show not also felt the need
[19:42] to give parents character an even darker
[19:44] Edge as he is suffering under a cloud of
[19:46] guilt for the entirety of the first
[19:48] season because he accidentally killed
[19:50] his wife in the first battle an event
[19:52] that is an invention of the show
[19:53] everyone is mopy but parin is extra mopy
[19:57] this is an adult show it's not for kids
[19:59] it's [ __ ] adult the show adapts the
[20:02] plotline of a Gwen being captured by the
[20:04] Shan Chan in the second season where
[20:05] she's forced to wear a magic collar that
[20:07] essentially turns her into a
[20:09] mind-controlled slave you can bet that
[20:11] the Amazon show would turn this
[20:12] relatively small subplot into a
[20:15] multi-episode torture porn set piece
[20:17] that evokes Theon being tortured by
[20:19] Ramsay but whereas theon's torture
[20:21] completely defined that character for
[20:22] the rest of Game of Thrones in The Wheel
[20:24] of Time Books awen and the other female
[20:26] characters subjected to the magic collar
[20:28] are right back to adventuring which is
[20:30] an element of the story that I think is
[20:31] open for some criticism and some
[20:33] Revision in an adaptation I'm not
[20:35] critiquing the fact that they did this
[20:37] but more just highlighting that it was
[20:39] done I don't know how Amazon will
[20:40] characterize awen in future Seasons but
[20:42] it will certainly be harder for them to
[20:44] make this plot line have as much
[20:45] consequence as the Ramsey plot line did
[20:47] on Theon because that isn't what's in
[20:49] the source material which means they'll
[20:50] have to do a lot more work to make it
[20:52] fit with the rest of the plot lines so
[20:54] with Bloom's first two strategies the
[20:56] poet is seeking to Grapple with the
[20:57] precursor but is still adopting their
[21:00] forms in Bloom's third type of influence
[21:02] the poet attempts to break away from
[21:04] that which came before Bloom argues that
[21:06] in their struggles to overcome their
[21:08] precursors poets feel something akin to
[21:10] Freud's conception of The Uncanny
[21:12] something repressed which recurs for the
[21:14] poet the fear of repetition of merely
[21:17] copying what has come before can be
[21:19] uncanny and Inspire them to end this
[21:21] compulsion like suppressing a nervous
[21:23] tick which cannot fully be erased the
[21:26] important words there were recurs rep
[21:28] ition compulsion in storytelling those
[21:31] are tropes and it's those tropes that
[21:33] the newcoming poet wants to break for an
[21:35] example of this when describing the
[21:36] ideas behind his work George R Martin
[21:38] said the war that tolken wrote was a war
[21:41] for the fate of civilization and the
[21:43] future of humanity and that's become the
[21:44] template I'm not sure that it's a good
[21:46] template though the tolken model LED
[21:48] generations of fantasy writers to
[21:49] produce these endless series of dark
[21:51] Lords and their evil minions were all
[21:53] very ugly and wore black clothes but the
[21:55] vast majority of Wars throughout history
[21:57] are not like that Martin recognized a
[21:59] Trope in the genre and found a way to
[22:01] break that compulsive repetition
[22:03] creating something new in the process a
[22:06] key part of why the battle for power
[22:08] Works in a song in ice and fire is
[22:10] because of its structure with each
[22:11] chapter focusing on a different
[22:13] character and with characters on every
[22:15] side of a conflict while the Starks are
[22:16] the characters you generally root for
[22:18] they aren't the only characters that
[22:19] have the audience's sympathies even and
[22:21] especially when the characters aren't
[22:23] virtuous we understand them and want to
[22:25] see them survive our conflicting
[22:27] loyalties make makes the wars compelling
[22:29] as we don't know who is going to make it
[22:32] out of each of the conflicts this
[22:33] structure is almost perfectly designed
[22:35] for Television TV shows Thrive by having
[22:38] a plots and B plots and CDE plots each
[22:40] playing in Tandem and cross cutting
[22:42] between them keeping the audience
[22:43] engaged in at least one of the stories
[22:45] increasing the chances that they'll keep
[22:47] watching Game of Thrones did not need
[22:49] much structural adjustment to fit in the
[22:51] mold of an HBO drama Thrones clones on
[22:54] the other hand have attempted to inject
[22:56] the structure into stories that weren't
[22:58] built for them or in ways that don't
[23:00] understand why this worked for Game of
[23:01] Thrones in the first place for instance
[23:03] the first season of the most expensive
[23:05] show ever made follows four concurrent
[23:06] plot lines galadriel's initial mission
[23:08] to find the dark lord Sauron gets
[23:10] diverted to numor elron goes on a
[23:12] diplomatic mission to the Dwarven
[23:14] kingdoms the people of the Southlands
[23:15] struggle to Stave off an orc Invasion a
[23:17] stateless wizard is discovered by a
[23:19] group of halflings and discovers that he
[23:21] is good I'm
[23:25] good the structure is strange for a
[23:27] story so Keen to remind its viewers that
[23:29] it is a prequel to The Other Middle
[23:30] Earth stories like while the Lord of the
[23:32] Rings did eventually have a story that
[23:34] branched off into several other plot
[23:35] lines it began solely with The Hobbit
[23:38] characters and got the audience to see
[23:39] the big magical world through their tiny
[23:42] innocent eyes A Game of Thrones also did
[23:44] this setting most of its first 10
[23:45] chapters in Winterfell but as is the
[23:47] case with these shows replicating the
[23:49] scale of late stage Thrones they also
[23:51] copy the structure of a late Stage
[23:53] episode without the structural
[23:55] Foundation that got us there other than
[23:57] the flimsy connection of the characters
[23:59] all seeing the same meteorite the viewer
[24:00] has little reason to understand why the
[24:02] Southland story is important to what
[24:04] Elon is up to or how the halflings
[24:06] marching through a forest connects to
[24:08] gadriel at Sea they simply cut to a
[24:10] different story and expect the audience
[24:12] to trust that it'll all connect and this
[24:14] whole big weird structure doesn't reap
[24:17] the benefits that Thrones did by having
[24:19] the audience question their own rooting
[24:21] interests a major reason for George R
[24:22] Martin to tell his story the way that he
[24:24] did was to break the simple good versus
[24:26] evil binary that exists in a lot of f
[24:28] stories and to have us empathize with
[24:30] characters on every side of a conflict
[24:31] rings of power has four stories about
[24:33] four generically heroic characters who
[24:35] are never in any real conflict with one
[24:37] another The Witcher is an adaptation of
[24:39] the fantasy series The Witcher by polish
[24:41] writer Andre sekowski and while it
[24:43] definitely already shares a lot of the
[24:45] same DNA as Game of Thrones as they're
[24:47] both Grim darks and have plenty of
[24:49] political scheming The Witcher show
[24:51] leans into those similarities rather
[24:53] than highlighting what is different
[24:54] about them for instance The Witcher is
[24:56] essentially a hard Boral detective story
[24:58] plopped into a fantasy setting in each
[25:00] short story geralt is confronted with
[25:01] some sort of mystery involving some kind
[25:03] of magic or Monster spends the story
[25:06] investigating the clues interviewing
[25:08] suspects and eventually unmasking or
[25:10] fighting whatever evil force exists in
[25:12] the story from that description you
[25:13] might conclude that The Witcher series
[25:14] ought to be a police procedural you know
[25:16] a 22 episode season with sand alone
[25:18] stories where the main focus is on
[25:20] solving a mystery we're in the wrong era
[25:22] for that though instead the first season
[25:24] of The Witcher is Eight Episodes long
[25:26] each 1 hour and cuts between three
[25:27] different stories the main gimmick of
[25:29] the first season is that the three
[25:30] stories following geralt Siri and
[25:32] yennefer respectively are all happening
[25:34] at different times and it isn't until
[25:35] the final episode that they're all
[25:37] brought into the same moment this
[25:39] creates a weird tonal pacing issue where
[25:43] the geralt plot line is adapting those
[25:45] police procedural esque Standalone
[25:47] stories from the first pair of books
[25:49] while the Siri and yennefer story lines
[25:51] are serialized Prestige TV type plot
[25:55] lines to the show's credit sometimes
[25:57] these stories are the ially linked like
[25:59] this episode which crosscuts between
[26:01] geralt battling arriga which is actually
[26:03] a girl that has been transformed into an
[26:05] evil creature and yennefer who was
[26:07] undergoing her own transformation or
[26:09] this episode where both plot lines are
[26:11] dealing with some sort of secret Shape
[26:12] Shifter other times though the various
[26:14] stories hinder one another the pilot
[26:16] episode adapts the short story the
[26:18] Lesser evil which sees geralt weighing
[26:19] the value of two lives against one
[26:21] another two people who are each asking
[26:23] him to kill the other and it's up to him
[26:25] to see through each of their lies and
[26:27] figure out what the Lesser evil is this
[26:29] climax is with geralt getting into a
[26:31] brawl in the middle of town that turns
[26:33] into a massacre for which he will
[26:35] forever be known as The Butcher of
[26:37] blavin but interrupting that plotline is
[26:39] the Battle of cintra where we watch a
[26:41] gruesome Battlefield Clash the
[26:43] destruction of an entire castle and the
[26:45] mass suicide of the whole ruling class
[26:47] of the country by the time you get to
[26:49] geralt murdering 12 people in a
[26:51] courtyard it feels quaint geralt's big
[26:53] dilemma is made small by the scale of
[26:55] what's happening between the cuts hey
[26:58] there's a pun now I do understand the
[27:00] logic behind structuring the season this
[27:01] way from a capitalist perspective The
[27:03] Witcher is a popular book series but it
[27:05] is a mega popular game series and in the
[27:08] games yennifer and Siri are just as
[27:10] popular as geralt himself and I can
[27:11] imagine the frustration a lot of people
[27:13] would have had if they turned on The
[27:15] Witcher show and it didn't have Siri in
[27:16] it for like two seasons so that's an
[27:19] influence on these decisions that has
[27:20] nothing to do with Game of Thrones at
[27:22] the same time the sense I get from the
[27:23] show is this desire to speed through the
[27:25] short stories as quickly as possible so
[27:27] that they can get to the big important
[27:29] stuff you know of Siri being the chosen
[27:31] one etc etc and in the process the show
[27:34] loses a lot of the color and humor that
[27:36] these stories possessed in favor of a
[27:38] more consistently depressing Grim dark
[27:41] tone for instance one of my favorite
[27:42] stories in the collection is the eternal
[27:45] flame in that story geralt and dandelion
[27:47] are helping a halfling merchant who was
[27:49] assaulted on the road by a Doppler a
[27:51] shape shifter who stole his identity and
[27:53] his horses which he then sold the
[27:54] Doppler then uses that money to buy a
[27:56] bunch of seemingly worthless products s
[27:58] and the merchant thinks that his
[27:59] business and reputation have been ruined
[28:01] but then they slowly realize that
[28:03] everything the Doppler bought was soon
[28:04] to Skyrocket in value because of some
[28:07] geopolitical shift that nobody else knew
[28:09] about you know there was a coup over
[28:10] here and it caused the price of so and
[28:12] so to jump but now rather than being
[28:14] broke he's Rich it's probably the
[28:16] funniest of The Witcher stories and it's
[28:17] pretty low stakes fun it's also one of
[28:19] the only short stories that wasn't
[28:21] adapted at all in the Netflix series
[28:22] they did however include the Doppler
[28:24] character himself but rather than being
[28:26] a mischievous little Scamp he's a
[28:28] bloodthirsty sociopath and he's a plot
[28:30] device in a you guessed it political
[28:32] Intrigue
[28:33] plotline try as he might the latecomer
[28:35] poet cannot fully exercise himself of
[28:38] the precursor's influence and even
[28:39] forgetting is anything but a liberating
[28:41] process Bloom argues that even if you
[28:43] try to forget the influencer that
[28:45] they're you know they're still hanging
[28:47] around there in your mind somewhere
[28:49] every forgotten precursor becomes a
[28:50] giant of the imagination total
[28:52] repression would be healthy but only a
[28:54] God is capable of it so if a poet cannot
[28:56] become a God then he can diminish the
[28:58] godhood of another and that is Bloom's
[29:00] fourth revisionary ratio demonization
[29:03] the word is taken from the Greek yeah
[29:05] we're doing this Dion and it is distinct
[29:07] from the Christian demon you are
[29:08] probably thinking about Greek Dions were
[29:11] lesser deities and guiding Spirits in
[29:13] one of Bloom's later works the diamond
[29:15] knows he often uses the phrase uh
[29:18] demonic Muse and Muse might be an easier
[29:21] word to Grapple with here it's closer to
[29:23] what he's really talking about so Muse
[29:25] the precursor poet becomes a Divine Muse
[29:27] in the mind of the new poet and unable
[29:29] to rid themselves of their Eternal
[29:31] presence strong poets attempt to
[29:33] diminish the impact of those who came
[29:35] before with a precursor created
[29:36] something Sublime a new poet will create
[29:39] a counter Sublime something that
[29:40] suggests the precursor was weaker than
[29:42] previously thought in essence this will
[29:44] make the son the latecomer poet more of
[29:46] a diamon and the precursor more of a man
[29:49] so you're kind of trying to become your
[29:51] own muse while also suggesting that hey
[29:53] that other guy he's barely even ause
[29:55] anyway forget that other forget that
[29:57] other guy in the dark Knight The Joker
[29:59] Is both inspired by and hateful of the
[30:01] Batman and seeks not to kill him but to
[30:03] bring him down in the minds of the
[30:05] people of Gotham that is the tense
[30:06] relationship between precursor and
[30:08] latecomer poet in Bloom's conception of
[30:11] things for an example of this we can
[30:12] look no further than George R Martin
[30:14] again and his relationship to his great
[30:16] Muse and the Muse of all fantasy
[30:18] literature Jr tolken ruling is hard this
[30:20] was maybe my answer to Tolen whom as
[30:23] much as I admire him I do quibble with
[30:25] the Lord of the Rings had a very
[30:26] medieval philosophy that if the King was
[30:28] a good man the land would Prosper we
[30:30] look at real history and it's not that
[30:31] simple Tolen can say that Aragon became
[30:33] king and reigned for a 100 years and he
[30:35] was wise and good but tolken doesn't ask
[30:37] the question what was Aragon's tax
[30:39] policy did he maintain a standing army
[30:41] what did he do in times of flood and
[30:42] famine and what about all these Orcs by
[30:44] the end of the war Sauron is gone but
[30:46] all of the Orcs aren't gone they're in
[30:48] the mountains did Aragorn pursue a
[30:50] policy of systemic genocide and kill
[30:52] them even the little Orcs in their
[30:54] little orc crads here we can see Martin
[30:56] lay out a Mis prison of tolken like it
[30:58] is a misreading of tolken to start
[31:00] asking all of these questions but they
[31:02] are fruitful misreadings because they
[31:03] lead Martin into the blind spot in
[31:06] tolken work the result is that Game of
[31:07] Thrones does take the Lord of the Rings
[31:09] off the pedestal a little bit no longer
[31:11] makes it the unquestioned idol of the
[31:13] genre that is dioniz it's Martin's Grim
[31:16] dark counter Sublime to tolken romantic
[31:19] Sublime in doing this Game of Thrones
[31:21] influenced the way that tolken can be
[31:23] read and emulated there is a naivity to
[31:25] tolken that can no longer be enjoyed in
[31:27] in the same way that it used to be
[31:30] looking over the TV landscape at the
[31:32] shows that have attempted to tap into
[31:33] the Game of Thrones audience the ones
[31:35] that have been the most successful in
[31:37] every sense of the word are the ones
[31:38] that have asked what if Game of Thrones
[31:40] but what if Game of Thrones but it takes
[31:42] place in modern day and instead of a
[31:44] medieval Kingdom they're fighting over a
[31:46] media Empire and instead of it being a
[31:48] drama it's got three dick jokes a minute
[31:50] Shogun was written long before Game of
[31:51] Thrones was a thing but the impetus to
[31:53] remake it is at least partially a
[31:55] byproduct of the success of Game of
[31:57] Thrones and instead of trying to be the
[31:59] next Game of Thrones the show has its
[32:00] own thematic and visual identity it is
[32:03] as if they said what if Game of Thrones
[32:05] but it's historical fiction and the
[32:06] scale of the conflict is much less
[32:08] politically complicated and we focus way
[32:10] more on the relationship between a
[32:11] limited number of characters and the
[32:13] lighting is really good the first four
[32:14] categories that Harold Bloom lays out
[32:16] are all basically different ways to have
[32:18] a take on your influencer's work rather
[32:20] than merely trying to replicate what
[32:22] came before you can use a familiar setup
[32:24] to then chart A New Path or try to tell
[32:26] a similar story but with the opposite
[32:28] tone or question the tropes of a
[32:29] particular kind of art and then break
[32:31] them or question the underlying
[32:33] assumptions in a work and then critique
[32:34] them no matter which category you put
[32:36] Shogun and succession into and there's
[32:38] arguments to put them in several
[32:39] different ones because boom's categories
[32:41] are pretty loose and overlapping the
[32:43] shows are hits because they have unique
[32:44] identities merely using the familiar
[32:46] mold of rulers competing for power as a
[32:48] building block Game of Thrones inspired
[32:50] many shows during its run but the arms
[32:52] race really started after the show ended
[32:54] except the show never really ended the
[32:56] vacuum that a lot of these shows thought
[32:58] they were going to fill didn't really
[33:00] exist because HBO filled that void
[33:02] itself with House of the dragon and with
[33:04] even more spin-offs on the way you know
[33:06] the king is dead but long live the king
[33:08] you can't clone Thrones better than
[33:10] Thrones bones but okay wise guy what if
[33:13] everything goes right and you actually
[33:14] get over your ex-girlfriend I mean you
[33:16] actually get over your influences isn't
[33:18] that possible please tell me it's
[33:20] possible well then you've stepped into
[33:22] Bloom's fifth category self-
[33:25] purgation where other forms of
[33:27] struggling with the precursor have
[33:28] avoided the issue the contest between
[33:30] the two poets you know have allowed the
[33:32] lomer poet to get away with just
[33:34] commenting on the precursor or trying to
[33:36] repress the precursor this step in the
[33:38] process is what Bloom calls the contest
[33:40] proper the match to the death with the
[33:42] dead you know if nothing else Bloom is
[33:44] fun to read empowered by their victory
[33:46] over the precursor the poet will seek to
[33:48] purge all outside influence from their
[33:49] work to be the dominant will and voice
[33:51] of their art Bloom Compares this to
[33:53] religious aestheticism practices of
[33:56] severe self-discipline the strong poet
[33:58] in his dionic elevation is empowered to
[34:00] turn his energy upon himself and
[34:02] achieves at terrible cost his clearest
[34:05] victory in wrestling with the mighty
[34:07] dead in doing so however the poet
[34:09] becomes not just Prometheus but
[34:11] narcissus solop cystic in their
[34:14] inspiration having become Godlike in
[34:16] step four the poet now worships herself
[34:19] only the truly strong poet can go on
[34:21] being both making his culture and partly
[34:23] contemplating his own central place in
[34:25] it but for this contemplation he must
[34:28] make a sacrifice and the sacrifice is
[34:30] narrowing the creative circumference of
[34:32] severing oneself from the lot of history
[34:35] you've closed yourself off from the
[34:37] force okay this basically means not
[34:39] letting yourself be influenced by
[34:41] anybody else you're only influenced by
[34:43] yourself for a Time the poet can go on
[34:46] creating works of greatness while living
[34:48] on this island of creative inspiration
[34:50] this Purgatory but writing poems is a
[34:53] purgation that drains more than it
[34:54] replenishes if the poet does not
[34:56] eventually go back to to The Well of
[34:58] inspiration they will die of thirst the
[35:00] example that jumps to mind immediately
[35:02] for me is Star Wars Star Wars you know
[35:06] Star Wars Star Wars started as a
[35:08] creative fusing of Pulp Cals space
[35:10] Fantasy World War II action Samurai
[35:12] movies Arthur and Legend and more then
[35:14] it became one of the most successful
[35:15] media franchises in the world and for a
[35:17] while there only knew how to reference
[35:19] itself and in this writer's humble
[35:21] opinion only became interesting again
[35:23] when it takes in new
[35:25] influences okay so we talked a lot about
[35:27] Herold bloom and his theories about
[35:28] influence but was he you know right is
[35:32] the anxiety of influence really the
[35:34] primary way we should analyze the
[35:36] relationships between different pieces
[35:38] of art I've certainly had my fun
[35:40] indulging all of Herold Bloom's
[35:42] classical metaphors of Epic biblical
[35:44] struggle but is it all just a bunch of
[35:46] pseudo psychoanalytical hogwash is
[35:48] Harold bloom a Visionary of his time or
[35:50] what Legions of critics have called him
[35:53] a pretentious windbag no other
[35:54] well-known literary critic elicits the
[35:56] kind of Praise or vitriol and not in
[35:58] equal measure as does Herold Bloom the
[36:00] attacks against Bloom and his theories
[36:02] come on multiple fronts first is that
[36:04] bloom is a conservative defender of the
[36:06] western Cannon a cannon that is
[36:08] dominated by white men in a strict
[36:10] lineage from John Milton to Wallace
[36:12] Stevens with little eye for anything
[36:14] else that exists outside of that like of
[36:17] course Bloom would tend to think that
[36:19] it's important that poems are in
[36:21] conversation with one another when he
[36:22] only elevates the poems that were in
[36:25] conversation with one another Bloom's
[36:27] folus is not ideologically neutral
[36:29] regardless of what he'd like us to think
[36:32] in his preface to the second edition of
[36:33] the anxiety of influence Bloom rails
[36:36] against other forms of literary
[36:37] criticism calling them the schools of
[36:40] resentment basically poetry was really
[36:42] freaking awesome before all of these
[36:44] damn feminists and woke social justice
[36:46] Warriors came along and ruined it with
[36:48] their postmodern neo-marxist Hokum when
[36:50] Bloom tells us that after 40 Years of
[36:52] teaching in the academy he now finds
[36:54] himself surrounded by professors of
[36:56] hipop by clone of galic Germanic Theory
[36:59] by ideologues of gender and the various
[37:01] sexual Persuasions by multiculturalists
[37:04] unlimited and that none of these Renters
[37:06] of the aesthetic value of literature are
[37:08] going to go away it is easy to forget
[37:10] that he is talking about literature and
[37:12] not the Ebola virus [ __ ] got him
[37:16] though Bloom branded his opponents with
[37:17] the word resentment there is a great
[37:19] deal of projection going on because
[37:22] nobody resented quite like Bloom he
[37:24] resented the way that all of these other
[37:26] forms of criticism didn't Focus on the
[37:27] text itself in his mind but that they
[37:30] tried to put the text into historical or
[37:32] social or political contexts the anxiety
[37:35] of influence is stop putting politics in
[37:37] Star Wars the book Bloom's writing is an
[37:40] attempt to turn back the clock on all of
[37:42] these other schools of criticism
[37:44] scaffolding that other critics could use
[37:46] to focus solely on aesthetic
[37:47] appreciation of poetry the connections
[37:50] between poets Bloom took the need to
[37:52] create his own system to a comical
[37:54] degree in his disagreements with poet
[37:57] John Ashbury John Ashbury was a
[37:59] contemporary of Bloom's and Bloom helped
[38:01] raise ashbury's profile but Bloom and
[38:03] Ashbury disagreed immensely over
[38:04] ashbury's own place in literary
[38:06] tradition Bloom said that Ashbury who is
[38:09] not likely to be pleased with this
[38:10] observation is at his best when he dares
[38:13] to write most directly in the idiom of
[38:15] Stevens whereas Ashbury argued broadly
[38:17] against big theories that explain the
[38:19] universe as a way to understand poetry
[38:21] and that the very existence of those
[38:23] kinds of Frameworks can be limiting
[38:24] forcing poets to write in ways they
[38:26] think will get critical attention in
[38:27] response Bloom echoed something like the
[38:29] death of the author arguing that poets
[38:31] don't really know themselves and that it
[38:33] takes a Critic to clarify things and
[38:35] while that may have an element of Truth
[38:37] it doesn't mean Bloom specifically is
[38:39] right about Ashbury all of that is to
[38:41] say not everyone agrees with this strict
[38:43] list of poets passing the torch of
[38:45] influence including poets that are on
[38:47] the list there are plenty of criticisms
[38:49] to be had of both Bloom and his system
[38:51] so perhaps the question to ask isn't is
[38:54] this right but where is it useful I have
[38:57] two in aners Bloom developed this system
[38:59] to analyze what he saw as some of the
[39:00] most Sublime works of art ever created
[39:03] so I think it would upset him immensely
[39:04] to apply it to capitalist hogwash but
[39:07] unfortunately that's where I think it's
[39:09] best applied capitalist incentives
[39:10] demand that things be produced and
[39:12] reproduced and reproduced and repackaged
[39:14] and remade and resold and rehashed
[39:16] Thrones clones are just one small part
[39:19] of the wider Trend pushing creatives
[39:20] towards a homogenized media landscape
[39:23] that is only set to become even more
[39:25] homogenized with the rise of AI leave it
[39:27] to the machines and the spreadsheets and
[39:28] they have no qualms about cloning the
[39:30] last big thing to make the next big
[39:32] thing it's by feeling the anxiety of
[39:34] influence that artists can push back
[39:36] against those demands and maybe Bloom's
[39:37] six categories can be Pathways to
[39:39] originality for someone out there maybe
[39:41] they can be that for me I've got to be
[39:43] careful I think of accusing other
[39:45] projects of unoriginality while making a
[39:48] video essay here on youtube.com I didn't
[39:51] invent this form and while I'm immensely
[39:53] proud of my videos I don't think they've
[39:55] broken the mold either so I'm taking
[39:58] this subject as a moment for reflection
[40:00] on my own creative shortcomings because
[40:02] I think I've still got a lot to say here
[40:04] but I want to start doing it in a way
[40:05] that pushes the boundaries what exactly
[40:07] that means I don't know yet but I hope
[40:09] you'll stick around with me and find out
[40:11] I've forgotten something though we've
[40:13] only gone over five of Bloom six
[40:15] categories we've still got to talk
[40:26] about this one one's the most
[40:27] interesting of Bloom's types of
[40:29] revisions and also the most plainly
[40:31] absurd this is where the poet truly
[40:33] overcomes the anxiety of influence no
[40:36] longer will they struggle with the
[40:37] precursor try to subvert them disparage
[40:40] them in this final step the poet invites
[40:43] comparisons once more between their work
[40:45] and the work that influenced them and is
[40:47] finally judged the greater then a weird
[40:50] thing happens we begin to interpret the
[40:53] influence non- chronologically we read
[40:55] the precursor as if they were influenced
[40:57] by their own successors we read tolken
[41:00] as if he was inspired by Martin should
[41:02] that be your goal as a creative I don't
[41:05] know it feels too Petty too down in the
[41:06] weeds why are you grappling with ghosts
[41:09] truly escaping the anxiety of influence
[41:12] would mean releasing the need for this
[41:13] kind of validation from critics an
[41:16] audience or history accepting the
[41:18] inevitability of influence without
[41:20] transforming it into a death match make
[41:22] art for its own sake and the anxiety
[41:24] will pass
[41:28] so that's enough about the anxiety of
[41:30] influence it's time to talk about the
[41:32] anxiety of
[41:34] influencers aka me videos like this take
[41:37] an enormous amount of time and effort
[41:40] and while I love making these videos it
[41:42] just is the reality they take so much
[41:44] time and work uh so if you've enjoyed
[41:47] what you've seen if you got some use out
[41:48] of it then I hope you'll consider
[41:50] supporting this channel on patreon every
[41:53] pledge goes a long way to helping me
[41:55] make these videos not only faster but I
[41:57] think more interesting and weirder and
[42:00] about you know maybe more obscure topics
[42:03] could really use your help there and not
[42:05] only will you be helping me by
[42:07] supporting the channel but there's also
[42:08] a bunch of patreon exclusive stuff over
[42:12] there so while I've been posting to
[42:14] YouTube less and less I've been posting
[42:15] to patreon more and more I feel that
[42:18] it's just a better place for me to post
[42:20] just some quick thoughts on things so I
[42:23] have a bunch of movie review type videos
[42:25] over there I've got a whole video on the
[42:28] second season of foundation which is a
[42:30] bit of a sequel to a video I made a
[42:32] couple years ago we got reviews of Dune
[42:34] in Civil War and Deadpool and Wolverine
[42:37] it's been fun go check it out uh other
[42:39] than that uh hope you're having a nice
[42:40] day and keep writing everyone